Any suggestions for the best way to use the Editorial Calendar plugin to tentatively scheduleposts that need to be written?

The only method I've come up with is to go to the Editorial Calendar, create a new posts with an all-caps title like"10 PLACES TO EAT PIZZA - WRITE IT," schedule a date/time for publication, and set the status to DRAFT.

This really has to do with the way you prefer to work. I normally add posts to the calendar as drafts at specific dates and then mark them as scheduled when they're ready to go, but I'm the only person writing for my blog. If you're managing a blog with multiple people you might want a little more process.